The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 351 The Boy Who Stepped on the Tiger's Tail (I)

"Why don't you send a few more people? There are three thousand Rakshasas on the island! What if we run into them?"

"If you're scared, just go back to Shenyang. There aren't enough soldiers everywhere, and the patrols are even more strained. Captain Xiao is lucky to have given us five men! Stop making such a fuss!"

Zhou Dabiao smiled apologetically, looked behind him, and said in a low voice:
"Captain Huang is right. Otherwise, why would we bring an auxiliary soldier to make up the numbers?"

Huang Wenyu held a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth, and his beard trembled slightly.

"Stop talking nonsense and collect the corpses first."

This night squad consisted of three Han Chinese, one Jurchen, and an auxiliary soldier, Jiang Liuer. Their mission was to scout out the Russian forces on Sakhalin Island. Each soldier was equipped with simple weapons, consisting of flintlock pistols and grenades.

Captain Huang Wenyu is a two-year veteran of Taichang. His name sounds like a scholar, but he is actually a bearded man from Shandong.

Zhou Dabiao, who was talking to Huang Wenyu just now, is from western Liaoning. He is not tall but has strong limbs. He is an old man in the Kaiyuan Army. He used to be a fighter in Ningyuan. Later, he offended the Wu family in western Liaoning and fled to Liaodong. He exudes a strong sense of commercialism.

The third, Ye Bushou, was in his forties, the oldest of the five. He remained silent throughout the journey. Jiang Liu'er didn't know his name, only that he was from the interior of the country and his surname was Qian. He had previously served as a pacification soldier in Kaiyuan City, under Yang Tong. Last year, his son fell seriously ill and he needed money urgently. He heard that joining the Northern Expedition Team offered the highest monthly salary (three times that of a combat soldier) and high rewards for completing missions, so he signed up. After several rounds of review, he was assigned as a scout for the expedition.

Then there is Alessa, who has a typical Jurchen look:
He has a hooked nose, a horse face, thin eyebrows, a thin beard, and a pair of small eyes that seem to be always squinting.

After more than two months of getting along, Jiang Liuer and this Udege (wild Jurchen) hunter became good friends.

Alesa's hometown is in a mountain village near Kuyi Island. Three years ago, all the men in the tribe were captured by Daishan and taken to Hetuala to dig trenches. Half of them died of exhaustion.

Three years ago, when the Kaiyuan army crossed the Taizi River, Alesa was still digging a ditch. Niulu Ezhen gave them bows and arrows, and Alesa was still adjusting the bowstrings when the Kaiyuan army's rockets poured down. Alesa was stunned by the explosion of the Divine Fire Crow. When he woke up, he was inexplicably captured.

He had never actually fought a war with the Han people, let alone killed anyone, so he was able to be released from the prisoner camp first. Despite this, his Jurchen identity made him very unwelcome in the expedition team. Some team members suspected that the ambush of Li Sanguang and others was caused by the collusion between these wild Jurchens and the Rakshasa ghosts.

A loud tiger roar came from the dark forest, which was more creepy than the leopard's roar before.

Alessa looked around, sniffed with his hooked nose, and muttered something in Udege language. Jiang Liuer heard his father speak Jurchen language, so he translated it for everyone:

"We've entered tiger territory. Get out of here."

The three Yebushou glanced at each other. Huang Wenyu looked at the remaining corpses around the bushes and said angrily:

"You damned Rakshasa ghosts, when I catch you, I'll chop you into pieces!"

The location where the tiger roared just now was estimated to be only two miles away from here. Captain Huang was from Dengzhou, Shandong, and had never seen a tiger since he was a child.

The Jurchen hunter's eyes were burning, and his legs began to tremble involuntarily. Jiang Liu'er urged:

"Hurry up, you can't leave if the tiger comes."

Huang Wenyu leaned over and gathered up the broken corpses on the ground:

"These brothers died heroically. Wrap them up and take them back."

Zhou Dabiao waved to Lao Qian who was on guard in the distance, and Lao Qian immediately ran over.

Captain Huang took off his cotton robe and spread it on the ground. The three men piled the remaining leg and hand bones together and stuffed them into his robe.

Alessa and Jiang Liuer stood nearby and looked at each other.

Jiang Liuer whispered:

"The wild animals are around. We can't take the body with us. They have eaten human flesh and will follow us if they smell the scent."

Zhou Dabiao turned around suddenly, his eyes sharp, like a knife cutting through the young auxiliary soldier.

"You're a jerk, you haven't even grown all your hair yet, you know nothing, get out of the way!"

The beast's roar stopped abruptly, and Jiang Liuer looked around with horror in his eyes.

Zhou Dabiao pushed Jiang Liuer, who was still in a daze, away and cursed:
"Coward, I'm not even afraid of the Jiannu, so why would I be afraid of a few wild beasts? In Hunhe River, I killed two Liaozhen servants. You were still a baby at that time! If you're scared, get back on the boat!"

Jiang Liuer took two steps back and stopped talking. The image of the white-pole soldier Peng Yong at the moment of his death appeared before his eyes.

When he joined the Kaiyuan Army, he had never told anyone around him about the bloody battle of Hunhe River. The little boy waved a dagger and stabbed the bear-like Ding Bi, leading the people of Shenyang to launch a counterattack against the Later Jin Army.

"Ding Bi, you know? He's much more powerful than a bear-man. His servants are all strong men who can fight ten of them at once. I killed two of them with my own hands in Shenyang without blinking an eye. I've disliked these Liaozhen people since I was in Jinzhou..."

Zhou Dabiao wanted to brag about his past achievements, but Huang Wenyu glared at him, tied the robe filled with corpses into a cloth bag, and handed it to him. "Stop talking nonsense and go!"

Biaozi took the bag very reluctantly and carried it on his back. The captain looked back at the two of them and said coldly:
"You two..."

There was a crackling sound of branches breaking from the dense forest ahead.

"The Rakshasa demons are coming! Prepare for battle!"

Huang Wenyu shouted in a low voice, took out a throwing axe, protected the four people in front of him, leaned forward slightly, and took a fighting stance.

The noise grew louder and louder, and everyone quickly dispersed into three rows of battle formations, with the captain at the front, Lao Qian and Zhou Dabiao in the middle, and Alessa and Jiang Liuer at the rear.

Jiang Liuer clenched the flying axe tightly, his fingers trembling slightly, and sweat oozing from his palms.

"It's a beast, not a Rakshasa ghost."

Before Alessa could finish his words, a huge brown beast suddenly emerged from the forest.

The giant beast was nearly ten feet tall. Jiang Liuer had to look up from more than ten steps away to see the bloodstains on its head.

The brown bear's face and body were a bloody mess, its left eye missing, a paste-like bloody hole. Its back and lower abdomen were covered in horrific wounds, and blood was dripping down, making people tremble with fear.

The brown bear tilted its head back, sniffed with its nose, let out a loud roar, and blood immediately gushed out from the wounds on its body.

It was like a collapsing mountain of flesh, roaring and crashing towards everyone.

Alessa raised his bow, stretched it into a full moon, and said to his Han companion:
"It has just been through a fierce battle and will tear apart anything that lives."

Zhou Dabiao cursed:

"The star of misfortune, if you say beast, here comes the beast!"

"If only I had a spear, I could kill it alone!"

Huang Wenyu said:

"We don't collect at night, how can we bring a spear?"

He took down his flying axe and told everyone:
"Don't use firearms, lest you alert the Rakshasa ghosts!"

Alessa released the bowstring, and everyone threw flying axes and iron bones. A wave of flying axes were thrown out and all hit the brown bear.

The heavy arrow shot into the bear's body through the wound, leaving only the large arrow tail feathers outside the body.

The brown bear's bulky body paused for a moment, and it roared on the spot. It angrily used its paw to pull the flying axe off its head, reached out and pulled out the heavy arrow, revealing its bloody intestines underneath.

It endured the severe pain and rushed towards the crowd at an accelerated speed.

"Draw your swords, scatter!"

The black shadow rushed in front of him and knocked Huang Wenyu, who was standing in front, away.

Captain Ye Bushou groaned, his body flew out and hit the birch tree trunk heavily.

"kill!"

Jiang Liu'er followed behind the three Ye Bushu, and the four of them brandished their swords together to kill the black bear. The four swords were inserted into the brown bear's waist, back and lower abdomen respectively. With the inertia of the beast's running, the handles of the swords sank into the bear's body, cutting several wounds more than a foot long.

Blood splattered all around.

The brown bear roared angrily, covered the intestines that were flowing out with one paw, and waved the other paw vigorously.

Zhou Dabiao couldn't dodge in time and was hit on the head by the bear's paw. The paw was so powerful that half of Ye Bushou's cheek disappeared, revealing the red and white skull underneath. His body flew five or six steps away and fell to the ground. He did not die for a while and rolled over and howled.

Lao Qian grabbed the handle of the knife and tried hard to pull it out of the bear, but the blade was stuck in the bone and couldn't be pulled out. He was dragged flying a few steps. The bear screamed and shook violently, throwing him directly into the bushes in the distance.

Jiang Liuer roared, drew out his beheading knife, slid under the giant bear, and stabbed its bloody belly.

(End of this chapter)